On March 7, I shared my about on five essential skills for PR people. Recently, Mark Ragan, publisher of PR Daily, interviewed Diane Schwartz, senior VP and group publisher for PR News, to get her thoughts on what skills public relations professionals need to be successful. As you might have guessed, strong writing skills made her list. Watch the video below and listen to her thoughts…
Donald Trump. Martha Stewart. Beyonce. Oprah. The list goes on. People from all walks of life have achieved a considerable amount of success by building their professional brand.
It’s never too early to start building your professional brand. Who am I and what do I do? What impression do I want to leave on people? The answers to these questions are essential to successful branding. People dedicate their lives to building their brand. However; I have put together a quick list of five steps you can take to solidify your own professional brand.
Make a Plan. Building your professional brand is not something you should attempt blindly. You must first know what your brand is all about and what you expect to achieve from your branding efforts. Writing out a plan sets the foundation. It provides a sense of guidance for you as you work to build a name for yourself. In your plan you should layout what you want to do, how you would like to approach those efforts and the desired outcome.
Get Social. If you cannot afford to create a web site or aren’t quite ready to start and maintain a blog, LinkedIn is a great place to start building your professional brand online.
o Create your own group or fan page: If activities in your personal life don’t really sync up with your professional brand, you might want to consider starting a separate group or fan page. This page could also serve as your own website.
o Create a base: Once you’ve created a new page, send friend requests to people or other brands with related interests.
o Keep your status updated frequently: Generating content through your status updates will help you build brand advocates and help you deliver your message to a targeted audience. However; don’t let too much time lapse between status updates. The less engagement or connection you have with your audience, the less connection they feel towards you or your brand.
o Use a strong Twitter handle: Your Twitter handle should tell your followers who you are or what you are all about.
o Create a background that delivers a message: Be sure to use a background that visually tells who you are and what your professional brand is about.
o Participate in Twitter chats: Participating in Twitter chats put you in an environment with other professionals. It also creates an opportunity for you to establish yourself as an expert. Or better yet, start a chat of your own! A comprehensive list of chats, their descriptions and times can be found here. For journalists and PR pros, I recommend #Journchat and #PR20chat.
o Establish Twitter Lists: By establishing lists, you can group your followers into categories and monitor what they are tweeting. You can even go to your followers page and follow some of their lists. When someone adds you to their group, they are essentially saying you are someone they want to monitor. They are interested in what you have to say. The more lists you are included in, the more clout you are perceived to have.
Be sure to include your social media presence on as many documents and electronic forms of communication as possible (resume, business cards, email signatures, Vcards, etc.)
Join professional organizations. Joining professional organization will connect you with other professionals with a similar background. Professional organizations create a great opportunity to network and share your specific area of expertise. Word of mouth and referrals are great ways to generate business. The Public Relations Society of America and the American Marketing Association are great resources. Visit their national website to find your local chapter.
Get it in print. Establish your area of expertise by writing articles in industry publications and professional newsletters and journals. Contact your local newspaper or other local print media outlets and pitch your area of expertise to them.
Look for speaking engagements. Your local high schools and colleges are great places to find speaking opportunities. Teachers are always looking for actual professionals to reinforce what they are teaching to their students and offer real life insight into a particular field. Volunteer groups and mentor programs are also great resources.
Got some experience and ideas you’d like to share? Go for it! How have you established your own professional brand?
There are not enough hours in the day, you say? Working more efficiently can help you find them. In an earlier post, I outlined various ways to declutter your work life. In the spirit of Daylight Saving Time, I thought I’d share a blog post for you from Pointer.org.
Writer Butch Ward does a great job outlining ten ways to effectively manage your time and create more opportunity to do the work you want to do. Here are a few of his tips:
For the complete list, read his article. How do you effectively manage your time?
Spin doctor, spin doctor, spin doctor!! Is your blood boiling yet? Are your ears bleeding? If you are like me, hearing these two words together to describe people in my profession (public relations) is like listening to nails screeching down a chalk board.
In 2008, I was honored to have the opportunity to attend the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) International Conference in Detroit, Michigan. One of the keynote speakers repeatedly referring to what we did as “spin.” She was, and is, a well-known speaker and entrepreneur. For that reason, she shall remain nameless. Attendees were so offended that the current PRSA president interrupted the speaker in the middle of her speech and politely asked that she not refer to our work as “spin.” The crowd, of course, went wild.
Spin. It’s the four letter word of our industry. PR people have fought long and hard to clean up our own image. We are not spin doctors. Believe it or not, it is NOT okay to be manipulative or disingenuous. When working ethically; we address facts and truths. As professionals, we are ambassadors of public relations and it is important to reiterate our purpose. It is not our job to simply do what the boss or client says. Part of our job as public relations professionals is to act as a consultant. If your client/boss wants you to spin a response in favor of the company, let them know the value of truth, honesty and transparency to the company, its audiences and stakeholders. They should also be aware of the consequences of spin as well. Once your organization has been blackballed as a spin machine, it will be hard to gain that respect back.
As much as we fight to prove this perception wrong, there are plenty of professionals who are perpetuating the stereotype. How can we put an end to this? Should there be more/better education in the J-schools so that we are “raising” ethical, young public relations professionals? Should we press our public relations organizations to be more vocal when those in the media refer to our group as “spin doctors?”
What are your thoughts?
How ethical are you as a public relations professional? Take this quiz to find out!
Write Ambition 